Complimentry Colours
by Dakara Zhang
Summary: When these colors meet, they clash, but make the colors themselves more vivid and intense, more beautiful. Sakura flavoured ice cream, sprinkled with hints of SasuNaru. ShounenAi!
1. Colours

_**Complimentary Colors**_

_Sasuke, Naruto:_

_Have arrived at the school. Will search for information on missing Nin. Try not to kill each other before I return._

_-Sakura _

_./\./\./\./\./\./\./\./\./\./\._

Sakura sat slumped over in her stool, resting her arms on the table, sketch book and pencils scattered carelessly over it. At the table over, a gaggle of girls giggled over something or other. Normally, Sakura would be one of them. But not today. She had a mission, and couldn't afford to be distracted.

She was in art room 3, where the target sat at right in front of the television, watching intently.

'Colors make up our world. They can cause different moods, and almost all of them are made of the three primary colors, mixed together.'

Sakura wondered what the target found so interesting, but didn't dwell on it, pretending to pay attention to the screen as the teacher walked by.

'Blue is what is known as a cool tone, and it can make us calm. But too much blue makes you depressed._– Like Sasuke_, Sakura thought idly. _Sasuke seems like a 'blue' person. And it's supposed to be 'cool'_

'On the other hand, Red is a 'warm tone' – it makes us think of warm things, like fire, or summer.'_Like me. I'm a red person. _'It can also make us more active. Looking now, you may detect a slight increase in your heart rate.'

_So if I'm red, and Sasuke is blue…Naruto is definitely orange, bright and cheery. _

Sakura, now fifteen, was over _him_. You know, Sasuke. He was a great guy, calm and collected and strong, but…

After he left Konoha for Orochimaru, Naruto brought him back. Naruto had gone after him, and he had come back, fatigued and without Sasuke, but smiling.

_He will be back. _He had said, with a smile. And she believed him. Because if Naruto said that Sasuke would come back, Sasuke would come back. And he did. Months later, he came back. And Itachi was dead.

When people asked how Naruto brought him back, his answer was…strange.

_**Miso flavored lips**. _Sasuke would say. **_And there is someone I cannot leave behind._**

'Complimentary colors are colors that, when mixed together, create neutral shades like brown, and grey.' 

It was strange, now that she thought about it. Naruto and Sasuke are a couple. Well, it was the agreement of what had been the Genin GossipGroup (most of them were now Chuunin) that they were. They never actually said it. But it was obvious…shy secret smiles, the occasional unnecessary brush of skin.

Naruto and Sasuke were a couple (probably)…but half the time they didn't even act like it! They constantly fought, and bickered, and threw stuff at each other!

'When put together, the contrast of Complimentary colors makes the colors seem more vivid, more intense. Examples are Purple and Yellow, Blue and Orange-'

Suddenly, Sakura sits up, and she stares at the screen, which has already moved on to other topics. But she doesn't notice. Because now, she understands.

_Complimentary colors. Orange and Blue…_

_When these colors meet, they clash, but make the colors themselves more vivid and intense, more beautiful._

When Naruto is with Sasuke, they clash. They fight, they bicker, and they throw stuff at each other. But in return, they gain something precious. The result is something more vivid, more intense, and they are better than they could ever have been alone.

_**Someone I cannot leave behind **_

Because without orange, blue is just another shade. It is calm, and it may become depressed. Orange is just another color. It is cheery, but may loose hope. When they come together, Blue is reminded that it's okay to be sad, but it's okay to be happy, too. Orange realizes that hope can be useless, but dreams can come true.

**_Because together, they clash. But in the end, they are complimentary. _**

_./\./\./\./\./\./\./\./\./\./\._

_Orange, Blue:_

_Target found and information collected. Coming home. _

_-Red_


	2. Flicker

- Semi-sequel to Complimentary Colours but it can stand alone. Slight shounen ai, can be taken as a rivals/friends kinda thing

**Flicker**

Sakura shivers in the cold. The night is dark under the cover of the trees, and it feels like the only warmth is the light of the fire. She knows that that's wrong, of course, but it's lonely here, even with her teammates on the other side of the fire. She's worried, too, but she knows they would want her to leave these moments to them alone. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she stares into the fire. It flickers, and Sakura's eyes are caught there, entranced.

A movement out of the corner of her eye, and she looks up to see-

"_No!" A scream. A whisper, in her mind- not quite in, not quite out, but maybe both at the same time 'Please don't die...' Sasuke, desperately running, dodging, fighting, for-_

_-Naruto. He lays, unconscious and unmoving at the vicious woman's feet. There is red there, and Sakura is afraid to ask, afraid to know-_

"_Is that blood?" Because if it is, that means that Naruto is hurt, and Sasuke is hurting, inside, and Kaka-sensei is fighting to save them, and it's All. Her. Fault._

"_I'm-" her throat is thick with fear and panic and guilt and the words stick in her mouth, "so sorry-"_

-Sasuke. Pale, beautiful Sasuke, staying beside Naruto, even in deep, relieved sleep. There's a cloth on the ground beside the fire and the white is stained with red. Sakura bites her lip and looks away.

The flames lick at a piece of wood, sliding against it until it, too, burns. The fire grows. It's all about taking that chance, bending with the change, grabbing this one shot which could just be enough to bring victory. Flames, almost incontrollable, spreading and destructive. Burning. It hurts. But that's okay, you'll get better. And you try again, and if you fail it doesn't matter, because you've gotten a little farther, this time 'round.

Sometimes, to her, Sasuke is fire. He hasn't failed, but he isn't going to stop trying to make that impossibility smaller, he hasn't given up on what he still hasn't done, and he's not about to.

"_Sakura" Kaka-sensei tells her quietly. "I'm going to bring medics back from the village – we don't know why Naruto hasn't woken up, so he shouldn't be moved."_

_Her eyes widen. "But, Kaka-sensei-!"_

"_No, Sakura." He sighs, and she is reminded of how much he worries, that he has seen too many of his comrades die. "Stay here and watch over them for me."_

_She looks at Sasuke, even quieter than usual, sitting by Naruto, wiping at the blood that won't stop flowing. She remembers, again, that her boys always worry too much, hurt too much, that sometimes it seems the sadness is in their very souls._

_She knows she is their light in the dark, their reminder that life isn't always tragedy, and she knows that she should be strong. If not for them, then for herself- for the"herself' in the past who read about famous kunoichi in the thick books taller than she. The one who told herself- I'm going to be one of them. The now-young-woman who asked herself- why am I so weak? The girl in the mirror to whom she says "I'm going to make it", everyday._

_She smiles up at him. "Don't worry, Kaka-sensei. It's going to be okay."_

_Kaka-sensei looks at her and something in his eyes soften. "It wasn't your fault, you know. But I'm not going to say that you couldn't have prevented it. Sakura, some advice to you – stop saying you'll do it, and just do it. If you don't know it's impossible, then for you, it isn't."_

Sakura falls onto her back on the grass, and she tries not to remember the blood. A light, streaking past the darkness where nothing shines. Comets. They sparkle so brightly as they shoot by the stars, but they seem so lonely, so far away sad. She wonders, if someone believed in them, urged them on, told them- there is nothing you believe in that you can't do. Would they stop falling in brilliance only to disappear? Would the sky be full of stars that shone forever with their own glittering light? She is a comet who tries too hard, and yet not hard enough.

_Naruto stirs. Sasuke's breath catches in his throat, and he waits for blue eyes to open. They almost don't, but then there they are, dazed and confused but so, so blue and Sakura finds it hard not to break down and cry._

"_You..." Sasuke struggles for words. Frustrating, reckless, hasty. There are so many things he could say, so many questions he could ask. Why do you make me worry? Why do you have to do something so stupid, but come out fine in the end, with this stupid grin on your face? Why do you have to tell me you'll be more careful next time, when we all know you'd do it again without thought?"...dobe."_

_And there is nothing more to say._

There is a light. It's not the fire, not anymore. It went out hours ago, but here, curled warmly in her sleeping bag, it doesn't really matter. This light's inside her, and it warms her soul with none of the fire's burn. She likes it. It reminds her of Naruto, but Naruto is more of a flicker- fiery in his own way, warming in his own way. He's not like Sasuke, though, - you don't need to wear gloves to handle this flicker, because he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he expects you to do the same for him.

This light is born of a flicker called hope, belief, faith, trust. Confidence, the ability to try and get up again when you fall. There are so many names, and all of them apply to Naruto.

_They fall asleep this way. Sasuke, curled around Naruto in a sleeping bag that they are still small enough to share, holding each other in an embrace that tells her "I would die if you were to disappear." Sakura watches them, curled in the roots of a tree a little ways off. She wonders what it would be like, to love like that._

Sakura will hold her head up high. It's all about belief, and using that belief to try. She's going to be careful with this little light in her heart. It'_s_ going to go out, she knows that, but that's okay. It'll stay as a flicker until she feels like she's strong enough, brave enough, tough enough. She knows this day is coming, and she can tell it's getting closer by the moment.

And when that moment comes, she wants this flicker to burst, into flame.


End file.
